Playwright Morna Young relished the idea of writing a contemporary musical
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Playwright Morna Young’s 2019 play based on her Burghead fishing heritage was her last production at Eden Court.
Now she is the writer behind the story of The Stamping Ground, Eden Court’s own new ‘jukebox’ musical based on Runrig’s songs, in partnership with Raw Material.
Working in Malibu when the pandemic hit, Morna made it home only to see five plays scheduled for that year cancelled.
“At the time, a little bit, it felt devastating,” she confessed. “But you always had that little moment didn’t you when you went ‘Yes, that was really sad, but compared to what is happening in the world …’.
Just as The Stamping Ground went into rehearsals in Glasgow, director Luke Kernaghan got Covid.
“For that first week we had Luke on the end of a giant screen – which is such a strange way to be trying to make theatre. You kind of just have to have some blind faith about it – and I really hope that no-one else tests positive!”
Morna recalls being asked to write the story for the musical, based on initial ideas from Alan B Macleod.
“It was a relatively short time frame and initially I was a wee bit terrified! But there was also a side of me that, I love Runrig and every Highlander loves Runrig.
“So you sort of go ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, isn’t it?’.”
Every Runrig fan can hear Morna quoting the band’s lyrics, possibly subconsciously. But she lived and breathed the band’s words at the start.
“There was one point last year when I locked myself away in a wee cottage over on the West Coast and I had printed out every Runrig song, the lyrics for it – over 200 songs. I thought I needed to go back to those lyrics and ask ‘What is speaking to me?’. I had a highlighter pen and went through every single tune and had different piles – yes, no, maybe. And it was constantly changing as I went.
“The main thing for me when I was first asked to do this was that I wanted to write something contemporary.
“The opportunity to do a new Highland contemporary musical just sang to me.”
The musical has a three-generation family at its heart, returning from London to the Highlands. Challenges include looking for love and coping with tourism’s impact.
Morna said: “The theme that had just kept talking to me again and again was the one about longing for home and the idea of where you belong. Everyone from a wee place, or the Highlands – at some point if you leave – has that sense of ‘Where do I belong?’ and, once you have left, is it ever the same?
“And Runrig ask all those questions. Who are you if you are somebody born on the land but now live in a city surrounded by bright lights and fast pace of life?”
Morna knows exactly how all that feels.
“I find it really affecting personally because I am constantly having that dialogue with myself. My heart is in Burghead, but I left when I was 17 and was living in London, Glasgow now – city-based because of what I do. But I can’t shake a part of myself that wants to be home with the sea and the hills. Runrig just captures that so beautifully. It really speaks to your heart.”
Morna pays tribute to director Luke Kernaghan’s attitude: “His point of view is if somebody wants to listen to a particular Runrig song, why wouldn’t they just buy the album? He says ‘We can’t be Runrig, but we can make a musical with these songs and find a different meaning’. Some of the songs retain a bit more of the Runrig authentic style, but a lot have been reimagined. That can be as simple as putting a female vocal on Worker For The Wind – a ballad when Runrig sing it. For so many of us Runrig fans in the room, to see the songs doing something quite different, it feels magical.”
The Stamping Ground is on at Eden Court on July 30.
